Railway-track drop pit



L B. GRAHAM. RAILWAY TRACK DROP PIT.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3,1922; 9 1,432,997; Patented Oct. 24,1922

Patented Get, 24, 1922.

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than? arest OFFER,

L'nsL IE B. canister/r; or EAST oniceeo, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR 'IO NATIONAL BOILER WASHING CO. 035 IIJLINOIS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A

CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

nhrtwarqrancr. nnor PIT.

Application filed July 3, 1922. Serial no; 572,367.

To aZZ whom/it may concern."

Be it known that I, LnsLiE B; GRAHAM, a

citizen of the United States, residing at East Chicago, in' the county of Lake and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Track Drop Pits, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to drop pits con taining means for lowering and returning a section of railroad track so that wheels released from a locomotive or rolling stock can be lowered into a pit or tunnel communicating with a place of repair, or wheel storage, and returned or replaced by another pair at will.

Heretofore it has been proposed to mount the movable section of track upon an elevator which has been supported either fixedly or movably from the bottom of the pit, but such an arrangement is uneconomical in that it requires an elaboration of supporting means for the elevator and its operating mechanism.

' The present invention proceeds upon the principle. of suspending the elevator from the surface level track bed. 'The operating mechanism is preferably mounted upon the elevator so that it becomes a self contained overhead suspension drop pit elevator, wholly independent of the under construction of the pit, and rendering unnecessary the complication and special design of bot tom of the pit heretofore necessary to sustain the load imposed by locomotives or rolling stock passing over the pit.

Preferably the means for developing vertical movement consists of suspending screws carrying nuts which sustain the platform of the elevator upon the screws, and preferably the screws are held stationary and the nuts are rotated; but while these details constitute the best method known to me for realizing the invention, they are not to be taken as limitations in the scope thereof. I

In the accompanying drawing Figure l is a view of a railway drop pit containing the new elevating mechanism, the pit being shown in vertical section, and the elevating mechanism in side elevation,

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the pit and elevating mechanism.

Heretofore, it has been the practice to arrange a track section 1 so that it may be .the track section 1 ll drives the chains 10 through aligned with a surface level track 2 or with adepres'sed track 3 extending from a pit a, by mounting the track section upon an elevator 5 controlledby suitable elevating mechanism sustained from the bottom of the pit. The present invention departs from the prior practice by sustaining the elevator from the surface level track construction, such, for instance, as the beams 65, by depending from said beams, screws 7 carrying nuts 8 so that by developing relative rotation between the nuts and the screws the elevator may be moved vertically to bring into alignment with either track 2 or track 3. Preferably the screws 7 are held stationary by socketing their heads 9 non-rotatably in the beams t5 and providing means for imparting rotation to the nuts 8, such, for instance, as sprocket chains 10 transmitting drive to the nuts from electric motor 11 energized by any suitable source of current 12 under control of a reversing switch 13. Preferably, motor the medium of reduction gear 14, although, of course, these details can be changed at will.

With an arrangement as above described, it is simply necessary to adjust the switch 13 in order to move the elevator 5 up or down and carry with it wheels or other locomotive or rolling stock parts to be removed or replaced. The arrangement also facilitates assembling of the elevator which carries the nuts 8 with the elevating screws 7, as it is simply necessary to temporarily support the elevator in proper position and feed the screws in or out of their respective nuts by driving the motor.

I claim:

1. In a railway track drop pit, a platform, screws suspended from their upper ends in the pit, nuts supporting the platform upon the screws, and means for developing relative rotation between the screws and nuts.

2. In a railway track drop pit, a platform, screws suspended from their upper ends in the pit, nuts supporting the platform upon the screws, and means for developing relative rotation between the screws and nuts mounted upon the platform.

3. In a railway track drop pit, a platform,

screws non-rotatably suspended at their up- 4. In a railway track drop pit, "a platform, 'sereWs non-rotatably suspended at their upper ends in the pit, nuts on said screws supporting the platform, and means track, a track section adapted toenter into alignment With said main track, a platform in the pit supporting said track section beams "at the upper end of the pit, sere'ws non-rotatably "so'cketed in said beam and dependingtherefrom into the pit, nuts fitted upon said screws and sustaining the platform and means for imparting rotation to said nuts.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 15th day ofJune, 1922.

LESLIE 13. GRAHA u. 

